In major cities across the United States, from San Francisco and Los Angeles to New York and Washington, D.C., historical Chinatowns are fading as middle class immigrants seek affordable housing, better schools, high-tech jobs and other aspects of "the American Dream" offered in suburban areas.

“The traditional Chinatown is changing, and in most cities it is no longer the residential, political and cultural center of Asian-American life that it once was,” said Wei Li, a professor in Arizona State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, in an Associated Press story that appeared in the Washington Post and on NPR's news site in the days leading up to the celebration of the Lunar New Year, Jan. 23.

Li, who is professor of Asian Pacific American studies in the School of Social Transformation and professor of geography in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, also chairs the U.S. Census Bureau's advisory committee on the Asian population. Her groundbreaking work on "ethnoburbs" is illuminating understanding of new forms of ethnic-majority communities in U.S. suburbs.